Team Building Exercises For Small Teams

In October I wrote about team building exercises for large teams. So I thought for a second that for this blog post on team building exercises for small teams, I could simply take my old blog post and replace the word large with small and be done! Just kidding. But kidding as a way to illustrate that there really are differences between large group programs and team building exercises for small teams. Small teams have challenges related to their dynamic – team members will most likely interact quite often. But this interaction holds the promise of great reward and accomplishment, once a team has learned to work well together.

Team Building Exercises For Small Teams

Small teams should engage in some sort of team building on a regular basis. If you have a weekly staff meeting, you should start the meeting with a short and fun team building exercise. Below are some ideas from my eBook, which by the way, you can download by using the form on the right side of this page.

Offering Help – Ask who needs help with something they’re working on. Have that person explain their challenge and then have one person on your team volunteer to help with the challenge or problem until it is complete.

Change Initiative – Let one person voice an opinion about something they’d like to change within your group process. Take a few minutes to openly discuss the pros and cons of making that change. Don’t feel like you have to come to a conclusion. The team building value is simply in the open discussion.

You Are Special Box – This is one of the best team building exercises for small teams. Have everyone take time to create little notes with positive attributes about each of their teammates. Everyone will fill a small box with the notes describing their attributes(without looking at them). Whenever you’re having a bad day, you can simply reach into your box and read a positive statement about you, created by a co-worker.

I believe it’s important for every team to work with a professional facilitator from time to time to help teams tune-up and refocus. But ultimately, it’s what you do week in and week out that will determine your success.